Milk, bread and the latest information on jobs throughout the state await shoppers at Carl and Don's Thriftway in Tremonton.
The grocery store's lobby is home to the state's third Access Utah kiosk - an ATM for government that currently provides Job Service and Salt Lake City information."Just this morning we had a guy hunting for a job," Rex Earl, store manager, said Thursday. "He printed out a job in Logan and that's where he's heading."
Job Service and Salt Lake City are embracing the electronic kiosk as a way to take government to the people, expanding the hours and places their services are available. The first kiosks were installed this fall - one at the Crossroads Mall and the other at the John Wesley Powell River Museum in Green River.
Use of the kiosk in Crossroads Mall has far exceeded expectations, said Dee Snowball, information technology manager for Job Service. An average of 125 people a day use the system. About a fifth of those are hunting for jobs.
Job Service landed a Department of Labor grant to place four kiosks around the state, primarily in areas it doesn't have offices. Salt Lake City signed on as the first partner in the project, and developed its own program for the kiosk system.
"We just want to make sure everybody knows what's going on and try every avenue we can to get out the information," said Pam Witt, Salt Lake City information services coordinator.
The networked machines all tap into the same information. The Job Service offerings include access to a job data base, unemployment benefits, training services and labor market statistics. Some sections are interactive; you can, for example, send job registration information from a kiosk to the agency's main office.
Salt Lake City lists information about community news, public safety services, the airport, cultural events and parks and recreation services. Users can check out Christmas concerts scheduled throughout the city or get tips on building a 72-hour survival kit.
The city's offerings are not yet interactive, although the city plans to add that feature in the future. Users would then be able to do such things as reserve tee times at golf courses, reserve park pavilions or pay business licensing fees.
The kiosks use a touch system that requires nothing more than a gentle tap on the monitor screen to travel from one menu to the next to reach requested information. The kiosks, which cost about $25,000 each, also allow many selections to be printed out on the spot.
By next year, there will be at least three more kiosks up and running. The city plans to buy two kiosks.
"We see this as part of a group of communication vehicles," said Brenda Hancock, Salt Lake City management services director. "The idea is if you use as many of these different vehicles as possible you'll hit different audiences."
The city already has a listing on the Internet and plans to add its own home page on the World Wide Web soon. It also plans to start its own cable television channel in the coming year.
Job Service plans to have one more kiosk operating by February, Snowball said. Eventually the kiosks may offer access to an array of state services, from wildlife permits to birth certificates and drivers licenses. But so far money has proved an obstacle to expanding the kiosk services.
"The only frustration is it's (money) tight and there isn't a good mechanism to bring up funds to do new applications," Snowball said. "Most agencies find it hard to invest in something new."
Additional services would please customers' at Carl and Don's Thrift-way, Earl said.
"They like it," he said. "People are already asking when other things are going to come on line."